Live 1970-71 Cymbaline Sound EFX

[BobbyTheKoala]

In 1970 and 1971 Pink Floyd commonly played the song Cymbaline live. In the middle of the song the band stops playing and a quadrophonic tape of footsteps and a loud explosion fills the venue.
In bootlegs you can hear audience members reacting in various ways, silent, laughing, shocked; I’ve also heard someone yell “I’m scared!” in Pepperland 1970. There isn’t any circulating footage of this portion of the song, and I’ve never heard people really talk about it; did they change the lights for this portion of the song? Did the band leave or stay on the stage? If the band did stay on the stage, did they just stand there? Were the audience members only reacting to the quadrophonic sound or was it something else?

[omayyad]

This is a question that has niggled me since I first heard a 'Footsteps' tape back in 2008. I tended to picture the whole house going dark to enhance the atmosphere with the possible addition of the band being in an understated backlit glow. This may be all fanciful nonsense and I'd love to hear an eyewitness account of this early coup de theatre. it certainly has a great deal more appeal than flying pigs.....sorry, Rog.

[rontoon]

It's not an explosion, but rather a series of doors opening and slamming shut.

The band just stood still during this sequence, no visuals. Just like the KQED footage.

[Simond]

I saw them do this 2 or 3 times back in 1969 and 1970, once as part of Cymbaline and also as part of The Man/Journey shows when it was used but not as part of Cymbaline. I'm sorry to say that I have no recollection of anything sinister happening with the lighting. So far as I recall, it didn't change and the band remained on stage. The Azimuth Co-ordinator threw the sound around the hall, making it seem as if the person was trapped in a sort of maze, that's all. Whether or not they made more of it in later shows, I don't know.

[David S CA]

That's so cool that you were able to attend these shows! Thanks for sharing your recollections of the performances from these years.

[omayyad]

I must say that I'm mildly disappointed. Given some of the audience reactions and Roger introducing it as a song "about a nightmare" (Fillmore West 29-04-70), it feels like the lads missed an opportunity for a nice touch of melodrama. Now if Nick could only invest in a quadrophonic sound system, it could be a highlight of his next tour. I can dream.....

[DesertRat]

I’ve always enjoyed listening to this bit, I wonder if they still have the raw sound on file somewhere, would be a fun thing to include on a disc of extras one day! I even tried making my own version once, maybe it’ll come in handy one day if I ever form a Floyd tribute group that re-enacts 1970 shows!

[DillPickles_]

Do you happen to have your version still? I would love to hear it as I've been attempting my make my version of the nightmare sequence!

[buffalofloyd]

Great question and good responses! I've often pondered this very same question as well, in fact every time I hear Cymbaline I wondered if anything was happening on stage or some sort of visuals were being projected. I came to the conclusion it was always just audio moving around the room and the audience left to their imagination, which IMO is way cooler, that way everybody has their own interpretation of what's going on.

[Simond]

Hi BF, it's perhaps worth me saying that, in the period 1967 to 1972 when I was seeing the Floyd, I never saw any kind of visuals or projections being used. The only things I saw, in the shows I attended, were the liquid light show in 1967 then the use of house lights, spots and strobes in some of the subsequent shows. So, for instance, the lights might be low and the stage just bathed in red when Roger did Set The Controls but nothing more sophisticated than that. There were the odd things like a merman wandering around the audience during The Journey but no 'visuals' or projections on stage. A journalist, in preparation for a book he was writing (which never came out), asked me what they were projecting onto the disc at the show in 1967. In all the shows I went to, I never saw that disc - I don't know when they first started using it.

[NuffM]

Great question and good responses! I've often pondered this very same question as well, in fact every time I hear Cymbaline I wondered if anything was happening on stage or some sort of visuals were being projected. I came to the conclusion it was always just audio moving around the room and the audience left to their imagination, which IMO is way cooler, that way everybody has their own interpretation of what's going on.

They never performed Cymbaline when they got the big screen. They started using that during 1974, they stopped playing Cymbaline after 1971.

[gorilla1973]

I can't believe the "nothing happened" thing. The audience doing multiple different reactions, even one recorder saying "look over there!" means SOMETHING weird happened during at least some shows. It just doesn't add up.

Maybe if footage or photos of a 70-71 show pop up, it could finally show what exactly happened. Keep in mind, stranger things have happened and there are no photos of it circulating, like the sea monster during The Man and Journey shows.

[fatoldpig]

Some of the shows have a girl laughing which seems to be part of the sound effect and audience also laughing at that part. Wondering what's happening then?

[rontoon]

I can't believe the "nothing happened" thing. The audience doing multiple different reactions, even one recorder saying "look over there!" means SOMETHING weird happened during at least some shows. It just doesn't add up.

Maybe if footage or photos of a 70-71 show pop up, it could finally show what exactly happened. Keep in mind, stranger things have happened and there are no photos of it circulating, like the sea monster during The Man and Journey shows.

Believe it or not, there were no visuals during this sequence. And audience reactions like, "Look over there," were in regards to the placement of certain sounds being manipulated by the Azimuth Coordinator.

And there IS footage of Cymbaline from KQED.

https://youtu.be/h28xyuM0cTg?si=x5RyEWIsZIPCtJy8

And SimonD gave a first hand account of the shows so I'm not sure what else you need as proof?

[Rupert Pupkin]

just a thought : here at KQED it's almost a daring nonchalance to see them waiting until the footsteps then the doors blam! big sound comes to play again.
But it was for TV.
I'm almost sure than on stage Roger (as we can see on footage) was way more demonstrative when he "sung" Careful With That Axe, Eugene.

Regarding Cymbaline there is also the Abbey The Royaumont amazing footage.

I can't remember which exact gig it was (but it was famous) of a girl in stop-top laughing when the footsteps, running and doors effects are played.

My only guess is that perhaps during this sequence, on stage, in order to improve the "experience" for the audience the light were perhaps down/low or even off. That could emphasize the azimuth effect.
But if I remember some press about the Man & The Journey; even during the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, as I heard on radio AM recording and the review of the concert, it seems that the members were on stage almost doing nothing whilst we can hear the saw and hammer sounds - from what I remember they were assembled a table on stage but it was sound effect.

This is IMHO a kind of Jacques Tati - good old Harold Loyd or Buster Keaton - silence gag in order to make it funny for the audience.
Perhaps it was kind of daring, this kind of nonchalance but that would explain the audience reaction.
Like the band would stay immobile whilst we can hear someone (who doesn't exist) running around the audience thanks to the Azimuth Coordinator effect.

This would be the opposite approach vs The Wall the 1977 tour or Dark Side Of The Moon, but the Floyd was smart and I can imagine something like that.
Just as if Roger would have played a fly bzzz effect and miming catching a fly which does not exist.
After all David Bowie did some mime sequences when he was Ziggy.

[fatoldpig]

Check out the footsteps sequence from 1971-11-06. Based on the audience chatter, it seems something is happening on the stage. Someone saying something about a guy falling on the stage during woman laughing sound effect. All the Oct, Nov 1971 US shows seem to have woman laughing sound effect.

[Simond]

But if I remember some press about the Man & The Journey; even during the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, as I heard on radio AM recording and the review of the concert, it seems that the members were on stage almost doing nothing whilst we can hear the saw and hammer sounds - from what I remember they were assembled a table on stage but it was sound effect

I saw the Man/Journey twice in 1969. The band were onstage wielding tools during that sequence.

Edit - see the MM review regarding the band on stage